alex30327

I put one of those Tornado things in my Injen intake to see if it would do anything. I did not notice any performance gains heresay, but today I got between 30 and 32 MPG on the highway. I would normally get in the mid 20's before the Tornado thing. For normal stop and go city driving, I am getting 4MPG more than before.

OCG35Coupe

iTrader: (3)

No freakin way.

a 20-25% improvement?!

So these things really do work huh.

AndyB

No, they do not not work.

If alex's mileage really improved that much it was for some other reason.

This tornado thing has made the rounds in all the groups (Durango, F-bodies, mustangs, etc.) and there are never any MEASURABLE gains.

No matter WHAT the product is (split fire plugs, gas line magents, fuel ionizers, tail pipe turbines, whatever) there is always some group of people who swear by it. That is why science is never based on simple anecdotal evidence.

I am not saying Alex is lying (and this is NOT intended as a flame). It is more likely that something else changed and he is attributing this gain to the wrong cause. Or, possibly, his driving style was different based on his expectations.

Tornado review 1

Think about it this way, if a bent piece of sheet metal could improve mileage and power wouldn't at least SOME car maker put them in the stock car? They aren't that expensive, even at full retail.

If something sounds too good to be true......

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Are you going by the electronic MPG gauge in the Z or did you actually measure your mileage for a full tank and divide by 20 gallons?

The reason I ask is that with my Procharger, I can no longer rely on the MPG gauge since with the increased air and fuel, it is no longer accurate. Maybe that Tornado thing does something similar?

alex30327

Did both (electronic gauge and mileage for full tank)

I heard that this thing did not work as well, but I am 100% sure that I am getting better gas miledge. I measured it without the torando thing and right after I put it in I measured again. I got 30+ MPG on the highway today doing about a 50 mile trip. I was taking it easy, driving in 6th gear a lot so I would get better MPG anyway, but have never gotten 30+MPG before. When I go for my normal drives around town, I get slightly better MPG as well. But when I am driving aggressively, MPG stays about the same.

ktown z

iTrader: (8)

I believe that the tornado does work to some degree. Last year I was a frequent track rat and spent alot of time there. My best friend owns a 2001 civic dx with numerous naturally aspirated mods. His fastests times of the day were consectutive 16.1 quarter mile times. I installed a tornado on his iceman intake (taking about five minutes to install) when he walked to the restroom. He made at least ten more runs throughout the night and all were around 15.8. He couldn't believe the difference in times. I also ran a 15.9 without the tornado and 15.6 with the tornado on my old stock hyundai tiburon. I can't explain it, but I am a firm believer that they work. I have one on my Z and my mileage went up 3mpg. I believe you can return them if you are not satisfied. Try one you might like!
Ktown Z

cbsuper

There's a reason the Tornado works. It actually chokes the amount of air going into the intake plenum. I had one of these Tornadoes inside my Injen CAI, and it did more harm than good. While it did save fuel consumption (gee, I wonder why since there wasn't that much air going into the combustion chamber), there were no power increases, and it slowed my car down. I was going to dyno with it on the car, but I decided to take it out.

As the author of the Tornado review said, you're better off spending your $70 on something useful, like the new Indiana Jones boxed set that's coming out next Tuesday. That will give you real performance gains that you can feel AND see.

AndyB

Good point, it does choke off some air so it could save some gas. Sort of like limiting the throttle opening a little.

It might also help a car that was running a little lean by acting as a choke. But there are better ways to fix that problem.

peptidbond

iTrader: (2)

I know that Nissan says the Z has a 20 gallon tank, but this has not been my experience. I can run the think almost dry and I will only get 17 gallons in at the most. Can anyone comment on this?

roark

iTrader: (2)

Well, you won't really know until you let the thing really run dry and then fill it back up. Has anyone here actually run dry and then filled up once they pushed the car to the station?

All gas tanks are tapered at the bottom to avoid pockets of fuel pooling. This is why your last 1/4 tank (as told by the guage) seems to run out faster than the other quarters. So when the guage reads empty, there are still a few gallons left in the tank.

Roark

alex30327

I don't buy your theory on that it chokes off air to the engine. This is not possible? Have you ever seen a tornade thing in real life. It can't choke of any air, it just spins the air in a funnel. I am going to go to the Dyno this weekend to test out my other mods, and I'll let you know if I lose any HP with this thing in. Right now my car is exactly the same, but just gets better MPG.

WashUJon

Don't attribute a cause based on a correlation. There are so many other extraneous variables involved. For instance, a temperature or air density or even a humidity difference between runs with and without the Tornado could make all the difference. There are so many other factors involved that I can't begin to attribute a measurable effect to the Tornado.

Bait-Fish

I gotta add my 2 cents. The tornado IS a so-called choke on the air into the engine. ANYthing installed in the intake tract will be a restriction. The amount of that restriction will however be nil when the engine's at idle but will undoubtedly be measureable at WOT. Now, one of the main claims that the makers of this product claim is increased mileage. I ask you this. That 50 miles or so of driving that you got your better mileage, were you very much into the throttle or just cruising. I already know the answer, cruising. At this amount of throttle opening (relatively small, pay attention to how deep you're depressing the throttle), what is happenning? The throttle's butterfly valve is pinched down, spoiling this fantastically swirled air, creating on the plenum side of the throttle effectively the same amount of turbulence as if the tornado was not on the car.

As far as more power, this undeniable restriction (if it imparts any change to the intake air rushing by/through it, it is causing a restriction) will be less air into the cylinders. Less air = less fuel required by the ECU to make its target air/fuel ratio = less power.

Argh! I'm sure without searching and trusting the above comments that this has been beaten to death before but it does invoke some passion in me as it is a blatant rip on hopeful, trusting people.

AndyB

Good explanation.

And I am with you. I HATE getting sucked in to these threads but it sort of bother me to see a product like this taking people's money. I have seen friends and family get pulled in by splitfires, gas line magnets, fuel ionizers, trick sparkplug wires, tailpipe turbines, etc. too many times.

I personally know people who "got better mileage" with their gasline magnets. There is NO convincing them that the magnet doesn't improve mileage. However, this stunt has been around for decades and there are NO patents stopping automakers from installing magnets. So... why no magnets on Honda ultra-high-mileage cars? Because they do not work. Period.

For ANY product that offers a lot for a little (ie. more performance or more mileage for very little money) you need to ask "Why wouldn't the car makers install it themselves? ".

Sometimes there is a good reason. For example, most car makers wouldn't use a K&N filter because it is messy to clean and re-oil and _most_ customers would hate it for the relatively small gain.

alex30327

Well at least I did not pay for it! When installing the tornado (takes about 2 min.) it does not look like it will restrict the air flow in the car any significant amount, nor does it add any hp in my opinion. I think the theory behind it is that the whirlwind air effect causes better fuel atomization, hence better gas miledge.

All I have ever read about this thing is that it is a piece of crapp, and a rip-off. However, these reviews always seem to come from people that have never installed one on their car. Personally I don't know if it is worth anything. I put it on as an expirement (friend gave me one for free), and I did notice better gas miledge. I'm thinking that maybe the MPG improvement is due to less air/less fuel theory stated above. I was going to take my car in this weekend to see how my real mods do on the dyno, so I'll see if this tornado thing really does anything. I'm expecting that it really is a piece of crap and the only thing it does is restrict the air flow a little.

John

iTrader: (17)

I'm going to be in line for that! Plus the 4th and last Indiana Jones comes out in Nov of 2004 IIRC...

Bait-Fish

Cool deal. I'm interested in your results.

kgb

I don't buy this theory because as the air filter becomes contaminated with dirt and debris it flows less air too. Does a car's gas mileage increase as the air filter becomes dirty? It doesn't in my experience; it gets worse.

I appreciate your post, though, alex.
Thanks.

alex30327

Good point, I didn't think about that

Drag Limited

I raise the BS flag on that one. The tornado is not the cause. SCC did a huge test on this and nothing was measured good or bad in the end. To bad the idiots still buy this stuff and tornado still advertizes in the back of SCC (well the last time I had that mag they did)